


You Could Be The Only One Who Knows The Truth of Me

by xcrossbow



Category: Fargo (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, For Shannon, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 01:10:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11430045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xcrossbow/pseuds/xcrossbow
Summary: Meemo doesn’t die at the warehouse. He probably should have, but he doesn’t. Instead he gets shot full of bullets and wakes up 3 days later in a hospital room with a needle in his arm and a tube down his throat.





	You Could Be The Only One Who Knows The Truth of Me

Meemo doesn’t die at the warehouse. He probably should have, but he doesn’t. Instead he gets shot full of bullets and wakes up 3 days later in a hospital room with a needle in his arm and a tube down his throat. 

“It’s a miracle really,” the doctor tells him, “None of the bullets even hit anything major. You’re a very lucky man.”

Meemo doesn’t really believe in miracles and he doesn’t really believe in luck either, but he nods along anyways.

All things considered, he supposes he really is lucky to be alive. At least this way he can still get a little revenge and then maybe do something with his life other than kill people for Varga.

* 

He doesn’t go to jail either. He definitely should have, but he doesn’t. The police interview him half a dozen times, desperately trying to figure out what happened. Desperately trying to pin the supposedly only survive of this violent ordeal down with any sort of charge. 

But they can’t. Meemo plays dumb, pretends he barely knows Varga. Pretends he has no idea who ambushed them. Pretends he doesn’t remember watching Varga completely abandon them to die for something that he started. 

They never even find out his real name and Meemo leaves the hospital a few weeks later a free man with a pain medication prescription under the name “Andrew Petinsky”. 

*

He goes to Canada as soon as he gets another fake passport and driver’s license. He doesn’t really know why he picks Canada, but he certainly cannot stay in America any longer and he definitely can’t go home.

He moves to Canada in a shitty, stolen red Honda Accord with a couple thousand dollars, a travel-sized toothbrush, an extra pair of headphones, and a change of clothes. He stops just outside of Toronto and rents the first one bedroom apartment he looks at. There’s not much space for dancing, but the rent is cheap and the landlord leaves him alone. 

He grows his hair out a little bit. He resists the urge to buy a red jacket. He resists the urge to kill his neighbors. He keeps to himself, he goes by the name “Brian” even though he doesn’t look like one, and he gets a cat that he never actually ends up naming. 

*

He gets a job at a local video store. It’s a piece of shit store and he spends almost the entire time he’s there fantasizing about being anywhere else. He barely makes enough to afford rent, but he supposes that it could be worse. 

On particularly awful days, he reminds himself that at least he’s not in jail. Or dead. He tries not to think about his past job or anyone he worked with. He tries not to think about Yuri or any of the men that died in the warehouse. The only person he ever thinks about is Varga and more specifically, he only thinks about killing him. 

And despite the mediocre job, Meemo is entirely fine living in his own little world that he created for himself for a while, completely unaware of the lives of anyone else around him. But, naturally, things never stay the way you want them too. And for Meemo, this current situation barely lasted more than a few months before the other shoe finally dropped. 

*

The other shoe comes in the form of Yuri Gurka who, despite disappearing without a trace for months on end, is very much alive. Meemo finds out Yuri is still alive in the most anti-climactic way possible. He finds out because Yuri just decides to visit him at work. 

Yuri visits him at work on a Tuesday afternoon. It’s a slow day. Tuesdays are always slow days so Meemo normally spends more time looking at the screen of his phone than actually watching the store. It is because of that fact that Meemo failed to notice that Yuri had even entered the store until he made his way up to the cash register and actually spoke.

“This store...is garbage,” Yuri tells him. He sets his large, calloused hands casually on the countertop in front of Meemo.

Meemo’s eyes shoot upwards, recognizing Yuri’s deep, heavily accented voice almost instantly. His mouth falls open unintentionally, his brain struggling to even find the most simple of words in any language to at all express his surprise. He says nothing instead, choosing to just stare in bewilderment at the man in front of him.

Yuri smirks, finding Meemo’s shock to be rather amusing. With one hand, he reaches over and pokes at the nametag pinned to Meemo’s chest. In a knee-jerk reaction, Meemo grabs his wrist a little too hard.

“‘Brian’? A little too American for a man of your coloring, yes?” Yuri asks. He grins and removes Meemo’s hand from around his wrist with his other hand. He’s surprisingly gentle.

Meemo says nothing in response, just blinks. Once, twice, three times. He briefly considers the fact that Yuri might be here to kill him, but realizes a split second later that he probably would have done it already if that’s really why he was here. He looks around the store quickly. 

Yuri stands still and watches him do this. They’re completely alone.

“You changed your hair,” Yuri remarks, gesturing to the bangs that are now falling into Meemo’s eyes.

Self-consciously, Meemo tucks the hair behind his ear. He looks Yuri up and down, sizing him up. Surveying what this time apart has done to his former co-worker. There’s something different about him that Meemo just cannot place, but besides that, he looks the same as before. Same odd haircut, same stubble, same shit-eating grin. 

“Same jacket,” Meemo responds, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And now he speaks,” Yuri says, feeling satisfied that he now got Meemo to say anything at all. 

An awkward moment passes, then Meemo finally gets the nerve to ask what he’s been wondering since Yuri first spoke.

“What are you doing here?” Meemo asks quickly. He tries not to sound nervous, but he’s pretty sure he fails.

“I’ve been following you,” Yuri answers nonchalantly, fiddling with the dvds on the display next to him. He doesn't elaborate beyond that, waiting instead for Meemo to respond.

“Why?” Meemo asks hesitantly. He thinks about the swiss army knife in his pocket, wonders for a moment if Yuri is armed too. He isn’t looking to kill Yuri, but he also isn’t looking for the trouble that Yuri is bound to bring back into his life. He stands stiff as a board. 

Yuri furrows his brows, becoming suddenly serious. “I need you to help me kill Varga.”

Meemo’s eyes widen. This is all very surprising. Surprising that Yuri is alive. Surprising that Yuri is in front of him now. Surprising that they’re somehow both still kind of on the same mission despite not working together for literal years. Without thinking, Meemo nods.

“My shift ends at 9,” Meemo finds himself saying. “Meet me outside.”

*

Meemo takes him to the bar down the street from his apartment building. Despite the fact that it’s less than a 2 minute walk, Meemo has only ever been there once before this. He takes Yuri there because it’s the only place that he can think of nearby that Yuri won’t hate completely.

They sit off to the corner at the very end of the bar. Without asking, Yuri orders them both a beer and downs half of his within the first minute of them being there. Meemo sips his quietly for a moment, then clears his throat.

“How long?” he asks Yuri, making eye contact with him for the first time since they sat down.

“How long what?” Yuri asks, his expression quizzical.

“How long have you been following me?” Meemo elaborates, pretending that he doesn’t see this all to be a rather large invasion of privacy.

“Oh,” Yuri responds, chuckling quietly, “That. About...2 months.” He takes another long drink from his beer. Meemo’s eyes widen.

“2 months?” Meemo asks incredulously. “How did you even find me?”

Yuri grins and shakes his head. Meemo sighs in frustration. God, he’s just as difficult as Meemo remembers him being. He moves on.

“I thought you were dead,” Meemo tells him suddenly. He doesn’t know what he plans to accomplish by telling him this. “I looked for you for weeks. Varga thought you were dead as soon as you went missing, but I didn’t. Thought that I’d be able to find you. But I never did.”

Yuri is silent for a moment, taking in all that Meemo is telling him now. He finishes his beer, clunks the glass down on the bar loudly. He looks at Meemo with an odd expression on his face.

“I thought you died too.” Yuri says finally. “Heard about the warehouse. Didn’t think anyone survived. But you did.”

Meemo raises his eyebrows, surprised that Yuri knows so much. Almost flattered, almost touched that Yuri seems to actually give a shit.

“That’s how I found you,” Yuri continues. “Newspaper article. “One Man Emerges As Survivor of Warehouse Attack.” Then, followed the paper trail. Two different fake names. A new life in a new country. A new job. Keeping your hands very clean over here. Rather impressive, considering your track record.” 

Meemo stares at the condensation on his beer glass, wonders if Yuri knew just how close he came to dying in that warehouse.

“5 bullets,” Meemo says quietly. “That’s how many they dug out of me. A whole mess of scars, but I didn’t die. Realized I couldn’t stay after that.”

Yuri grins, but something about it is strange. Slowly he turns on the barstool so that he’s facing Meemo head-on. Bringing his hand up his side, he slowly pushes his away from his ear. Or at least where his ear should be.

“You aren’t the only one with new scars,” Yuri tells him.

Meemo’s eyes widen, taking in the patch of scar tissue that covers the lower part of Yuri’s head and travels down his neck. There’s no ear there at all, just an odd looking mound of skin.

“Can you hear still?” Meemo asks, not even bothering to disguise the shock in his voice. It’s a stupid question and Meemo regrets asking it almost immediately, but Yuri merely shrugs in response.

“Not as well,” Yuri tells him. “But yes.”

Meemo nods, sips his beer. He says nothing else for a few minutes, thinks instead about how he’s going to bring the subject of killing Varga back into the conversation. Yuri orders a second beer and, just when Meemo is about to open his mouth, Yuri brings up the topic himself.

“I’ve been tracking him,” Yuri begins. “Varga. He’s in Europe. Norway, actually. Different operation. Under the name “Anglerfish”.”

Meemo snorts a laugh at that. Naturally, this new fake company also has a weird sea creature name. Yuri nods, knowing just how ridiculous it sounds. 

“The money he’s pulling in is impressive, but it looks...messy,” Yuri continues. Meemo raises an eyebrow, skeptical.

“Messy?” he asks, sipping his beer slowly.

“Messy like he might get caught. The entire operation reeks of stupidity,” Yuri explains, the beginnings of a grin growing over his features. 

Meemo nods. The thought of Varga getting caught is almost as satisfying as the thought of Meemo getting to kill him.

The bartender saunters back over then, asking either of them if they want anything else to drink. Yuri finishes the last of his second beer, then asks for vodka. Meemo shakes his head when the bartender turns towards him, gesturing to the still half-full glass of beer as evidence to the fact that he doesn’t need another drink right now. The bartender pours a shot of vodka for Yuri. 

Yuri raises the shot off the counter and makes eye contact with Meemo again. His eyes are the same eyes that Meemo remembers from their time before. Dark, with an entire history violence beneath them. Meemo feels a shiver run down his spine.

“To Varga,” Yuri says, winking at Meemo. He downs the shot.

*

Alcohol easily clouds one’s judgement and Meemo is unfortunately no exception to this. It is because of this that Yuri ends up sleeping on the couch in Meemo’s apartment. Alcohol, combined with guilt that Yuri has been sleeping in a car for the last 2 months.

“I don’t understand why you don’t have your own place,” Meemo tells him, handing him a spare pillow and a blanket that he found in the linen closet. There’s a few holes in it. Moths probably. 

Yuri shrugs in response, watching Meemo’s cat crawl around on the floor.

“You can eat whatever is in the fridge, I suppose. Don’t worry about feeding the cat. Don’t wake me before 9am or I will kill you,” Meemo explains. He’s mostly kidding about the last part. 

Yuri nods again. “Does the cat have a name?” Yuri asks him randomly, reaching over to give the animal in question a quick pet. The cat purrs quietly.

“No.”

Yuri smirked, then gestures to the living room itself. “Not much space in here for dancing.”

Meemo rolls his eyes, turns the corners of his mouth upwards at the comment. “I manage just fine,” he responds.

Meemo stands in the living room doorway for a few more moments, lingering uncomfortably. They shared a living space when they worked together previously, but something about this feels too intimate. Meemo watches Yuri take off his jacket and lay on the couch. Yuri looks over at him then and Meemo realizes that he should’ve just left when he had first handed Yuri the blanket. When he turns to leave, Yuri clears his throat.

“Thank you for letting me stay here,” Yuri says. The kindness in his voice sounds genuine. Meemo can feel the blood rushing to his cheeks.

“You’re welcome,” Meemo says. The words come out clipped. A little too robotic and unfeeling in comparison to the tone Yuri was using.

“Good night, Meemo,” Yuri says, reaching up to turn off the lamp beside him. 

Meemo does not reciprocate the statement. He almost wants to, but it feels too affectionate.

Meemo leaves the room completely then, dragging his feet sleepily down the short hallway. He finds himself hesitating in the darkness outside the door of his bedroom, thinking about how Yuri said his name. Wracking his brain trying to think of the last time someone said his name like that.

*

They don’t find and kill Varga the next day. Or the next week, for that matter. After 3 weeks of almost no additional development on Varga’s operations and whereabouts, Varga completely disappears. 

Off the map. Missing in action. Gone. Back to square one.

The same cannot be said for Yuri. Yuri stays. Sleeps on Meemo’s couch, eats Meemo’s food, plays with Meemo’s cat, somehow makes friends with the nice women living in the apartment below Meemo’s. 

*

After another 2 weeks go by, Yuri gets a job. Unfortunately for Meemo, the job he chooses is at the local video store. He goes by a fake name that’s just as ill-fitting and American-sounding as Meemo’s: Randy. 

The search for Varga gets put indefinitely on hold because of the fact they both work, but at least Yuri helps to pay rent now. 

They both continue to pretend that this is all very normal and not at all suspicious. Just two co-workers sharing a small apartment until their job is done and they can go their separate ways. 

They only realize themselves how strange their whole situation must look to other people when the woman downstairs asks Yuri if they’re dating.

Yuri laughs at her after she first asks it. It’s a forced laugh, an uncomfortable laugh. 

Meemo stands still against the wall, one earphone in his ear, the other in his hand. He says nothing, tries to pretend that all the blood in his body isn’t rushing to his face.

“He wishes,” Yuri replies jokingly, gesturing at Meemo with his thumb. “But I’m just a co-worker. This is...all very temporary.”

Meemo feels his face growing somehow even warmer as the woman laughs politely, wishes them both well, and leaves to go do whatever it is she needs to do on a Saturday afternoon.

As soon as she’s gone, Yuri exhales and shakes his head. “She must be crazy.”

Meemo rolls his eyes and grunts. “Whatever.” 

Yuri’s eyebrows raise at Meemo’s gruff reply. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing,” Meemo replies, his voice low and irritated. “Just know that I do not ‘wish’ that we were dating. You are in my life enough as it is.”

It’s overly defensive and a total overreaction, but Meemo doesn’t care. He starts on his way up the stairs to the apartment. His apartment. Their apartment. Whatever. Yuri follows him.

“I know that,” Yuri tells him after a few seconds have gone by. “You need to learn how to take a joke.”

Meemo stops walking and turns to look at Yuri then. They hold each other’s gaze for a second too long. Yuri raises an eyebrow quizzically. Meemo blinks, then looks down at the staircase, 

“You are such a fucking asshole. You astound me.”

*

Varga resurfaces in Beijing a few months later. Different operation, different name. 

Meemo and Yuri do nothing, both focusing too hard on treading around the careful boundaries of their relationship in an apartment that’s too small to keep any real distance between them. They barely discuss doing anything about Varga and they barely notice when he disappears off the grid again. 

Yuri continues to sleep on the couch. Meemo continues to sleep in the bedroom. The only thing that changes is that the cat, now referred to affectionately by Yuri as “furry bitch”, chooses to sleep on the couch with Yuri instead of with Meemo. Meemo pretends that it doesn’t bother him. 

*

They get more questions about if they’re dating. Some from strangers at the bar, some from co-workers, some from the few neighbors that aren’t entirely terrified of them. Yuri informs them each time that they are not, just merely living together. He always finds it rather amusing, but Meemo doesn’t.

Meemo never says anything at all. Just listens to Yuri explain that this is a temporary arrangement even though they’ve been doing this for over a year now.

*

When another month goes by of nothing from Varga, Yuri considers moving out. 

“I think this plan was something we should have given up on a while ago,” he tells Meemo one night while they’re looking over some of Varga’s previous records.

Meemo says nothing, just swallows the imaginary lump in his throat. Yuri looks at him, waiting for him to react. After another few seconds pass, he continues.

“There’s no reason for us to live together if we aren’t working together,” Yuri explains. His voice sounds strange, almost sad.

Meemo nods, though he’s not sure he actually agrees. “Where will you go?” Meemo asks, his voice quiet.

Yuri hesitates, then shrugs. “Maybe back to America,” he says nonchalantly.

“You don’t like America,” Meemo interjects, not really sure why he’s trying to stop Yuri from leaving. After all, Yuri’s done nothing but sleep on his couch and follow him everywhere he goes. Meemo should be rejoicing at the fact he wants to leave.

Yuri shrugs. “I haven’t seen all of it,” Yuri replies. “Besides, I can’t imagine you would like it if I stayed here.” Yuri smiles at him. He’s kidding, but he’s also not.

Meemo traces the lines in the table with his index finger and shrugs. “Okay,” he says, pretending that this has no impact on his life at all.

*

A few days before Yuri plans to leave, they find Varga. He dodges the feds, escapes a DHS holding facility, and, in the oddest turn of events yet, ends up in Canada. Specifically, Windsor. 

For once, things actually might work out, Meemo thinks to himself from his spot in the passenger seat of the car they stole that morning. 

They ride mostly in silence, Meemo listening to his music on his headphones, Yuri listening to whatever’s on the radio. It takes them a few hours and they reach Windsor just as it gets dark. Perfect.

It’s all almost too easy. Almost. They find Varga after only a day and a half of searching and take out his guards with surprising accuracy for two people who haven’t killed anyone in over a year. That just leaves Varga.

Varga’s almost surprised that they’re alive. Almost. His startled face then falls into a grin, exposing the same filed teeth that Meemo’s seen in his nightmares more times than he’d like to think about. 

“So I guess it’s come down to this then,” Varga remarks, a glint in his eyes that prickles the hair on Yuri’s arms.

They hesitate too long before killing him. Gives him just enough time to defend himself against Yuri, leaving a large stab wound in the Russian’s arm. Thankfully, he doesn’t have enough time to protect himself from the 5 bullets Meemo puts through his chest. It really only took one to kill him, but Meemo doesn’t care. This is revenge. Fuck him.

Later, a few miles outside of the city, Meemo stitches up Yuri’s arm in silence. There’s more than one dead body lying in the trunk and Yuri’s yelling Russian obscenities and this entire car is about to end up at the bottom of the nearest body of water, but this moment is still one of the best moments of Meemo’s entire life.

He puts the last stitch in Yuri’s arm and slowly wraps it in a bandage. Yuri watches him, no longer crying out in pain.

“Thank you,” Yuri tells him once Meemo finishes. Meemo looks up from his arm, his face inches away from Yuri’s. Meemo nods, feels the blood rushing to his cheeks.

“You’re welcome,” he says, a second too late. There’s an uncomfortable moment between them as they stare at one another. Then, Yuri blinks and looks back down at the bandage.

“I suppose we are done then, yes?” Yuri asks him, not meeting Meemo’s gaze. His voice sounds strange and tight.

Meemo nods, looking out at the empty parking lot around them. “I guess so,” he says, unsure of what exactly he wants to say.

Yuri nods and purses his lips, but says nothing. They sit in silence for a few minutes until Meemo finally offers that they should really get rid of the bodies while it’s still dark.

*

Yuri only comes back into the apartment to grab the few belongings he’s accumulated during his stay on Meemo’s couch. Used to be their couch, for a while, but now Meemo supposes it’s back to being his. 

It takes Yuri approximately 10 minutes to grab everything; the toothbrush on the sink counter, the comb he never used, the clothes that Meemo let him keep in one of the drawers in his dresser, the charger for his phone -- all into a box that used to hold way too many packages of ramen noodles. Meemo watches him pack up from a spot on the arm of the couch and watches the cat follow him around everywhere, inquisitive and unaware of the fact that this will probably be the last time either of them see Yuri. 

When Yuri finishes packing, he pauses in the center of the living room with the box in his hands and takes one last look around the small apartment. The cat meows at him and Yuri looks down at it, smiling sadly. 

Meemo clears his throat uncomfortably and stands beside him, shifting his weight from foot to foot. 

“I suppose I should be going,” Yuri says then, an odd-looking smile on his face. 

Meemo stares at him, nodding slowly. There’s a weird tightness in his chest, an ache he’s not entirely sure makes sense in this situation. He takes a deep breath and feels his rib cage shutter a bit on the exhale. 

Yuri places the box on the ground for a moment and takes a couple of steps towards Meemo, closing the gap between him. He hugs him then, his arms quickly wrapping around Meemo’s waist before Meemo can even begin to react. 

Meemo gasps quietly, inhaling the scent of Yuri’s cheap aftershave. He stands there, motionless. The size difference and Meemo’s lack of participation makes it slightly uncomfortable, but it’s still somehow nice. 

Meemo only makes a move to reciprocate once Yuri begins to pull away, the smaller hands on the small of his back stopping him from breaking the hug completely.

“Please don’t go,” Meemo says then. The words are muffled, whispered into Yuri’s chest, tripping over one another on their way out of Meemo’s mouth. Meemo isn’t entirely sure why he says them, embarrassing himself with the intensity of his own feelings.

Yuri pulls away then, the two of them face-to-face, a mixture of confusion and desperation on both of their faces. “You want me to stay?” Yuri asks. 

It’s an unnecessary question given that he already knows the answer, but Meemo still nods. “Yes,” he says, clipped, not daring to say anything else.

A smirk grows across Yuri’s face. Meemo doesn’t know if he wants to punch him or to do something else completely. “You want me,” Yuri says, coyly. “To stay.” He takes a step towards Meemo and Meemo can feel his breath as he finishes what he’s trying to say.

“With you.” The words fall out of Yuri’s mouth nicely, well-annunciated, punctuated with a mixture of self-satisfaction and something else that Meemo hasn’t really heard before.

Meemo says nothing, just nods and looks up at Yuri with dark eyes through even darker eyelashes. There’s a pause, nothing happening between them but the sound of breathing. 

Then, in what feels like almost slow-motion, Yuri bridges the gap between them, his lips finding Meemo’s despite the awkward difference in height. 

It’s desperate and a little uncomfortable, but Meemo’s waited too long for this to even care. 

Eventually, Yuri pulls away, both of them gasping for breath in the pale yellow lamp light. 

“I guess I can unpack my things,” Yuri says, a smile on his face, still breathing hard. He’s turning to pick up the box when Meemo grasps his wrist, his fingers right at Yuri’s pulse point.

“Leave it,” Meemo tells him, his voice low. There’s a glint in his eyes that Yuri’s never seen before. “You can pick it up tomorrow.”

Yuri pauses, catching Meemo’s meaning. He smiles. 

“You’re right. I suppose I have other things to do.”


End file.
